Uncoupling cars

You know, I have never found a method of uncupling cars that worked all the time and any manual types always seem to move cars too much.

My manual uncoupler is a thin bamboo skewer with a sharp point on the business end and a marble-sized wooden bead glued to the other end (for better control). Stick between Kadees and twist gently. My cars typically don’t move much during the uncoupling.

Phil

I do manual uncoupling truly manually…that is, with my hand. I reach around one car with my thumb on one side, and my middle finger on the other, and grab the truck. Then I lift it enough to disengage the Kadee coupler, move the car slightly off-center so I can re-engage the couplers in the ‘delayed’ position, and then set the car back down.

BTW I remove the “hoses” on the Kadees that would engage an electric or magnetic uncoupler; they just get in the way.

I have actually designed all my HO layouts with careful thought into placing the Kadee #308 under the track magnets so I can use the delayed function of magnetic Kadee couplers to push cars into position.

I do not like to touch the layout for any reason when I am playing with the trains.

-Kevin

Got plenty of those magnets but didn’t use and they did not work well on curves.

I use skewers. They do work best with real Kadees, opening up ‘compatibles’ liek Accumate is hit or miss. Which is why I repalce any non-Kadee couplers with real Kadee.

I don’t use any track magnets, fixed or electromagnets, but I haven’t brought myself to cut off the kadee ‘air hoses’ yet. I paint them grimy black with a dab of silver on the tip. Both previous layouts had any uncoupling area easily reachable from the operating area, and my new one continues that.

–Randy

It seems that the consensus is using a bamboo or BBQ stick to uncouple. That’s prob easier than a finger. My fear is knocking over the car with my fingers and damaging the scenery.

I’ve had very good luck with the Kadee 321 between the rails magnets. I also tried the ⅛” Neodymium magnets but didn’t find them as nice as the 321s. I also have a pair of Kadee 309 under the layout uncouplers, they work very good.

I also made a couple of my own design under the layout uncoupler that also work very good.

This is a link to the Mel uncoupler.
https://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2020/01/january-25-2020-mels-magnetic-uncoupler.html

All of the uncouplers work good except the individual magnets, I didn’t give up easy, I tried the magnets in several positions and I just wasn’t as happy with their operation as the regular Kadee’s. My own rendition works very good but way too much trouble to make them. Because they are very conspicuous they are used in hidden areas.

My choice would be the Kadee 309 for ease and aesthetics. I have not tried the Rapido Railcrew, looks very promising.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

Before going over completely to Sergents [:)], I used-with great success-the Kadee #241 manual uncoupling tool that has a designed spade shaped head to open knuckles. https://www.kadee.com/documents/241.pdf

Joel

I started out being one of those who believed human hands do not belong in the scene. It’s hard to let go of.

But then reality of wanting to operate a layout sets in. Even in my Lionel days, I hated being limited to uncoupling over a ramp. The later post-war at least had tabs on the couplers to uncouple manually.

And now in HO and HOn3, I’m certainly not going to install an uncoupling device everywhere I’m going to uncouple. Switching is part of the operating fun for me. And when I realized that once I started using bamboo skewers for uncoupling (I collect chopsticks and carve them down), I had already set myself up for walk-around operations, it made the other decisions easy. Walkaround control (I use tethered because my layouts are small), turnouts operated by switches in the fascia or manually, no indicator lights needed, and no control panels needed. Shelf layouts are more conducive for skewer operations than rectangular, so continuous running is no longer a big deal.

One little locked-in decision makes many of the others for you. I love this hobby!

Fred W

…modelling foggy coastal Oregon in HO and HOn3, where it’s always 1900…

The guy that invents an effective, easy, method of uncoupling cars on a model railroad will be the 3rd richest guy in the U.S.

I like to use a sharp lead pencil. Placing the point between the Kadee uncoupling pins from the side opens both knuckles at once. I find this much easier than trying to get a stick into the small space between the knuckles from above.

Mark Vinski

All this imput got me to tweek a plastic sckwer that worked but still had issues with, I found out that the unit needs to sit on the coupler and the tapered part only going down so far. Will keep working on it.

Note that Kadee 322 permanent magnet code 83 uncoupler is to be installed so that 1/64" protrudes above the railheads.

They make a gluing jig 334 which, in the accompanying instructions, very explicitly requires that the uncoupling magnet be installed so as to be below the railheads by at least 1/64" and no more than 1/32".

Kadee makes a lot of stuff and almost all of it is really good, but when they blow it they really do.

Fitting the magnet into the jig and then into the piece of track will leave the magnet proud of the railheads by 1/64" by my expert Mark I micrometer calibrated eyeball so that’s how it’s going to be.

No squeeze out room for the glue though…

I have found that the skewers that come with a chinese meal, are thinner and work better than the BBQ/kabob skewers available at the grocery store. Probably could make your own by sharpening a thin dowel.

Good luck,

Richard

I use a “plastic fantastic brakeman” – the Rix uncoupling tool.

You can also “flip it around” and use the “flat end” to make hitches where the couplers don’t naturally align (curves, etc.).

But the Rix doesn’t work on everything. It’s best with Kadees, but it has problems with the couplers Accurail uses on some of their cars. And if you have a car with a lot of metal near the end (caboose with metal ladders, things like that), the magnets on the coupler will make it harder to handle, and might even pull a metal part off the car. So in those cases, I just use “the big hand”.

I also experimented with a few different uncouplers using small round powerful magnets.

It was a frustrating failure.

-Kevin

Add me to the list of those who like to line their turnouts by hand, who uncouple by hand/skewer.

Well I tried a few other shapes but the one that works best is made out of 1/8" plastic rod tapered to a point only in the last 3/16" on one side. Works 80% of the time first try with non Kadees. We will see if I can do better.

While they do look good, I don’t have time for yet another hobby so good old Kadee’s will have to do. [:)] Didn’t Sergents shut down?

I kind of doubt that. From my observations, few got filthy rich producing model train products. But I’m sure it would make a lot of model train people happy none the less.